Chinese Begin to Vent Discontent With President Xi and His Policies

Signs of unease with President Xi Jinping’s leadership have emerged amid public rancor over China’s trade tensions with the U.S., a sluggish economy and public-health and financial scandals.

In online essays, social-media posts and rare public protests, academics and ordinary Chinese have vented misgivings about Mr. Xi and the Communist Party-run bureaucracy, despite tightening curbs on public speech. Some criticism has been directed at the president and his policies, others at perceived government failings.

Hundreds of alumni from the prestigious Tsinghua University petitioned for the removal of a professor they accused of “misleading” officials and citizens with triumphalist claims of China’s superiority over the U.S.—a complaint that implies Beijing mishandled ties with Washington.